The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie Book Review

Titan Books has published a hardback book titled The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie available from numerous online retailers and high street book stores. The Addams Family originated from Charles Addams creating cartoons for the New Yorker in 1938; having since had success in multiple decades including a live-action television series from 1964 to 1966 followed by an animated TV series in 1973 and two live-action films that released in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The Addams Family have also enjoyed five successful retro games including adventure Fester’s Quest on NES in 1989 by Sunsoft; platformer The Addams Family on Amiga, Atari ST, SEGA Mega Drive, SNES and TurboGrafx-16 in 1992 by Ocean Software; platformer The Addams Family: Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt on Game Boy, NES and SNES in 1992 by Ocean Software; action RPG Addams Family Values on SEGA Mega Drive and SNES in 1995 by Ocean Software; and adventure The New Addams Family on Game Boy Color in 2001 by 7th Sense, alongside a tie-in mobile game for the animated film on Android and iOS titled The Addams Family Mystery Mansion. Can The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie deliver a quality official companion to the animated film of The Addams Family?

The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie book is written by experienced author and journalist Ramin Zahed; the Editor in Chief at Animation Magazine having written books such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse – The Art of the Movie, J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World: Movie Magic Volume 2 and more besides.

The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie book begins with two separate forewords written by co-director and producer Conrad Vernon (Madagascar 3, Monsters vs. Aliens and Shrek 2) and co-director Greg Tiernan (Thomas and Friends) followed by an introduction covering the origins of The Addams Family and some creative considerations in tone, humour and adaptation relating to the animated film. Meanwhile, the introduction expands into character design, colour palette and how the animated film draws inspiration from Charles Addams’ original cartoons in the New Yorker, alongside interviews with producers Alex Schwartz, Alison O’Brien and Danielle Sterling as well as character designer Craig Kellman and more besides.

The characters feature begins on page 16 and concludes on page 93 encompassing multiple pages per character on their creative origins, what role or relation each character has amongst or around the family. There is expert insight from directors, artists, head of story writing and more besides of the animated film accompanied by plenty of artwork for every character including Morticia, Gomez, Grandma, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Thing, Auntie Sloom, Socrates, Kitty, animals, extended family, portraits, implements, Parker Needler, Margaux Needler and Eastfield residents.

The locations chapter starts on page 94 concluding on page 155 featuring a multitude of pages per environment on establishing a new look for the original design of the iconic environments situated throughout The Addams Family. Directors, designers and artists provide analysis on their artistic processes of modernising the quality of the visual fidelity of the environments without moving away from being a homage of what was previously created and experimenting with the colour palette, alongside lots of artwork for every location including the Old Country Town, Addams Mansion, Ichabod, foyer, Lurch’s padded cell, Gomez and Morticia’s rooms, Pugsley’s room, Wednesday’s room, dining room, ballroom, living room, kitchen, Fester’s room, Eastfield Estates homes, square, middle school, Margaux’s house and vehicles.

Anatomy of a Scene is quite possibly the most intriguing chapter as it provides a thorough step-by-step guide to a major scene titled Family Game Night from the perspective of the vast majority of the crew that collectively created the film as this particular scene had many hurdles in animation, design, audio, visuals and more besides that has in-depth coverage via ten pages worth of interviews, artwork, concept artwork and storyboards representing the progression of the scene. Meanwhile, a conclusion briefly summarises what has been discussed within The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie followed by credits for contributing artists, author’s acknowledgements and MGM’s acknowledgements, alongside a glossary of half a dozen important terminologies in the film making process.

Quality of writing maintains a high standard, especially due to the significant integration of interviews with the majority of the core crew that created the animated Addams Family film throughout every character, location and scene analysed in the book, alongside two forewords, introduction and conclusion.

The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie book’s presentation is excellent as the front cover artwork features the animated film version of each of the main characters from the Addams Family, while the back cover showcases some concept artwork within stylishly ornate golden picture frames. Meanwhile, there are plenty of storyboards, concept artwork and final artwork; complimenting each paragraph.

The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie book’s value is for fans of the Addams Family, original creator Charles Addams, animated films and those who are interested in the artistic and production processes of creating an animated film throughout the duration of 168 pages.

Analysis
• Title: The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie
• Writers: Ramin Zahed
• Contributions: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan, Craig Kellman and more
• Publisher: Titan Books
• Length: 168 pages
• Cover: Hardback

The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie can be purchased in the UK from Amazon and Forbidden Planet, while The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie can be purchased in America and Canada from Amazon. You can also find Titan Books’ official website including a back catalogue of captivating books and product details regarding The Addams Family: The Art of the Animated Movie.